Coming out of a group of breakaways, the Frenchman won alone at the top of the Malbun (hors category pass).

He beat Spaniard Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) and Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana).

Higuita (Bora), 4th in the stage, stole the leader's yellow jersey from Dane Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-PT), 7th on arrival in Malbun.

In general, the Colombian is only two seconds ahead of the Briton Geraint Thomas (Ineos) and 19 Fuglsang, now 3rd.

"It was very hot, very heavy. For me, winning under 35 degrees was important. I always said that I had come to win. I am no longer in the same period as before my crash. I see the bike differently. What I just want is to win races", reacted the 32-year-old rider on the L'Equipe channel, after his success, the second in a few weeks.

He who had not won since the Tourmalet stage on the Tour de France 2019.

Fallen during the first stage of the Tour 2020 in Nice, the Franc-Comtois suffered from his back for almost a year and a half.

A period of doubt closed by his victory during the 5th stage of the Tour of the Alps at the end of April.

During this seventh stage of the Tour de Suisse, Pinot was for a long time in a group of fourteen breakaways, which formed at the start of the stage and counted up to almost 8 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Still in the lead before the ascent of the Malbun, a non-category pass (12.4 km at 8.4% average), the group gradually split up, leaving two men alone in front, the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and the Spaniard Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis), pursued by Thibaut Pinot.

The Frenchman finally joined and then let go of the two men to take off for the stage victory.

The 85th edition of the Tour de Suisse, disrupted by the abandonment of riders positive for Covid, ends on Sunday with a 25.6 km time trial in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein.

Higuita and her two-second lead will have a hard time resisting exercise specialist Thomas.

© 2022 AFP